For the first time since protests during the presidential race of 2010, Belarusians finally see the real chance to overthrow President Alexander Lukashenko after 26 years of dictatorship, Aliaksandra… Read more »
Contemporary Russia is probably weaker in geographical, demographic, economic, military and diplomatic terms than at any time in the past century, notes Evan Mawdsley, a former professor of international history… Read more »
Ukraine is a front-line state in the struggle between European rule-based order and Russian kleptocratic autocracy. Since the Euromaidan Revolution in 2013–14, Russia has deployed a range of measures –… Read more »
Authoritarian regimes are corrupt in a more fundamental way than liberal democracies because the access to power on every level of state bureaucracy in the former effectively signifies access to… Read more »
Vladimir Putin’s regime has instituted a “pretend party system” in which real political groups, with popular leaders and a genuine support base, are denied a license, replaced by impostors who… Read more »
President Vladimir Putin’s opponents agree a nationwide vote next month that could extend his rule is a sham, but are split over whether to campaign for a “No” vote or… Read more »
Belarus’s oft-maligned civil society, which most people had written off years ago – after 26 years of persecution and authoritarian rule – has risen to the challenge of confronting the… Read more »
The psychiatric abuse of dissidents widely practiced in the Soviet Union continues as a tool of political repression in Azerbaijan, according to a leading civil society group. Azerbaijan is “reviving… Read more »
Democracies can reset themselves by changing governments through elections. Modern Russia cannot, says Alexander Baunov, a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center and Editor in Chief of Carnegie.ru. By the confluence… Read more »
Hundreds of people in Minsk protested against the rule of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in the largest opposition demonstration of the year. They denounced the authoritarian rule of Lukashenko, who… Read more »